Four Things I Learned at a Gay Satanist Manor [True Horror Story]
Apologies for the clickbait. Anyhow.
On March 18th, I visited the Corpsewood Manor ruins close to Summerville, Georgia. On December 12th, 1982, two men who were romantically involved and living together, Dr. and Joey Odom, were murdered in the isolated North Georgia home they built with their own two hands; they and their two bull mastiffs were killed by two men because Scudder and Odom were "queer devil-worshippers."
1. Some People Don't Know How to Make a Pentagram
You tried?
2. It's Strangely Terrible and Beautiful How Nature Takes Over
Admittedly, despite my familiarity with being in a car traveling through North Georgia roads, which are notoriously winding and bumpy the father into the mountains you get, the road up to Corpsewood has to be the countriest of all country roads. Rather than dying from some killer like four typical white people in a horror story, I was sure my friends and I would teeter off the road and fall off the looooong drop. When you look past the drop and see the country side, it's hard not to believe in the Gothic sublime with the stretch of green and the dreary, thin veil of mist.
Corpsewood Manor is close to Dead Horse Road, named as such because the inhabitants found a horse corpse there. There's a labyrinth of different paths twisting in the woods and sparse appearances from flies and hornets. A pit gapes where was once a vast lake. An opening in the ground, seemingly a well, is now filled with trees, rocks, and scattered bricks. All the ruins are rounded except for the gazebo, allegedly to trap demons. The wind sweeps violently through and shakes the leaves, which are streaked red with Sputhern clay. Moss and orange fungus creep up bent, half-burned branches like varicose veins.
3. Some People Think It's Literally Okay to Murder Someone Because of Their Nonviolent Occult Beliefs
Seriously, guys?
The justification for the murders is that Dr. Scudder and Odom were Satanists because Dr. Scudder especially showed great interest in the occult. Scudder moved away from Chicago so he and his partner could be left alone and enjoy the quiet, and they never hurt anyone, yet there's still those who question whether they deserved to die. Scudder's last words, which were, "I asked for this," are apparently proof to some people, a dying man condemning himself, his loved one, and his two dogs. This is compounded by the Satanism hysteria in the 70s and 80s, and so comes a sensationalized view of the bloody Corpsewood tragedy where these two quiet men who lived with their dogs were obviously demon-summoning, blood-drinking monsters, and the killers who planned to enter their home to kill them were only doing it for righteous reasons. Isn't murder against a commandment?
4. It's Not Scary; It's Sad
While I don't blame anyone who felt frightened at Corpsewood, I didn't feel any eeriness; I didn't feel a demon leering over my shoulder or vengeful ghosts glaring from the firepits and glittering broken beer bottles left by partiers.
As nature reclaims all these men's hard work thirty-five years after their deaths, what happened in Corpsewood was and still is a meaningless, horrifying tragedy that happened to two men hoping to escape the restlessness and chaos of urban life. Of course, I've given my perspective, but this is still an issue of contention in the areas surrounding the ruins.
Below is a picture of Charles Scudder, Joey Odom, and one of their dogs, Beezlebub. They look happy; it is terrible others found it fit to take this happiness away.
Here is an article Dr. Scudder wrote about his decision to build a castle-manor in the Georgia woods.